Electric space heater



Dec. 3, 1957 w. G. LOWRY 2,815,434

ELECTRIC SPACE HEATER Filed. Dec. 20, 1954 IN VEN T0R..

.- Kfi W/LLMMGZOWRY A 770/?NEY United States PatentO ELECTRIC SPACE HEATER William G. Lowry, Altadena, Calif. Application December 20, 1954, Serial No. 476,221

Claims. (Cl. 219-46) This invention relates to electrical heating means and deals more particularly with a heater that serves relatively large areas, such as a room.

An object of the present invention is to provide a room or other large area with radiant heat by an installation either directly on the floor and beneath any floor covering, such as carpeting or composition materials, as part of such floor covering, or between carpeting and the pad usually used in connection therewith.

Another object of the invention is to provide a space heating means, of the character above indicated, that provides uniform radiation of heat in the area to which applied.

A further object of the invention is to provide a radiant type of room (or other area) heating means that uniformly covers the area to which applied and provides, therefore, uniform radiation of heat.

The invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description. However, the drawing merely shows and the following description merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or example only.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in the several views.

Fig. 1 is a small-scale plan view showing the present electric heater in schematic form and applied to a room or similar area.

Fig. 2 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary plan view, partly in elevation and partly in section, of the electric heater of the present invention, the same being an embodiment that is at present preferred.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view as taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a still further enlarged cross-sectional view as taken on line 44 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 1 shows a four-walled enclosure 5, the same representing a room or any space or area. The present space heater 6 is applied, as shown, to uniformly cover the area of such room and, thereby, uniformly serve the same.

The heater 6 that is illustrated comprises, generally, current feeder means 7 extending from opposite sides of a typical outlet box 8 or comparable means, said means 7 thereby receiving current from a power source, and a plurality of heating elements 9 extending across the feeder means 7 and in electric circuit therewith. The assembly contemplates two feeder wires 10 as part of the feeder means 7, the heating elements 9 being arranged in parallel across said wires 10 either in the manner shown in Fig. 1 or in a comparable manner. It will be evident that the parallel arrangement may be modified to be a seriesparallel arrangement, if desired.

The feeder wires 10 may be round and large-size copper wire, the size being such as to insure cool conduction of current therealong. At preferably uniformly spaced intervals, each wire 10 has brazed thereto a copper tube or nipple 11, all of said nipples extending in the same direction and affording a socket 12. Copper is mentioned as the metal from which feeder wires 10 and nipples 11 are made, but use of another good-conducting material is not precluded. In this manner, the feeder means 7 may be laid at the base of the walls of a room 6 with the nipples 11 of the wires 10 extending toward each other to provide opposed sockets 12 receptive of the heater elements 9.

While relatively heavy for cool conduction, said wires 10, nevertheless, may be transported in rolls and, when installed, straightened or bent to corners, as desired. Said wires and the nipples 11 may be covered with electrical insulation 13 which may be in the form of molded soft or semi-soft rubber, or like material. All of the surfaces of said wires and nipples, except sockets 12, may be insulation-covered, as desired.

Each heater element 9 preferably comprises a ribbon 14 of copper alloy or other material that has such high electrical resistance that the same generates heat. Since the temperature contemplated to be generated need not exceed F., the ribbons 14 are made of an alloy and each is of a cross-section] size to provide such heat as a maximum.

In the present instance, each element 9 at its opposite ends is provided with a terminal 15 adapted to enter the opposite sockets 12 of the feeder means 7. It is preferred to provide a transition portion 16 between ribbon 14 and terminal 15. Said transition portions of the elements 9 may vary according to the type of installation. As shown, said portions 16 provide for an offset relationship between the terminals 15 and ribbon 14. Such offset may be larger or smaller or may be eliminated, if desired.

In this case, the elements are shown as directly on the floor 17. If to be placed between a carpet and its pad, the offset of the transition portion may be eliminated or reduced, according to the thickness of material involved.

While it is not precluded that the terminals 15 may be brazed to nipples 11, greater flexibility of replacement is afforded by using set screws 18 in said nipples to mechanically impinge the terminals.

Each heater element 9 is encased in a flexible, electricinsulating, heat-resistant and relatively non-combustible plastic envelope 19. This envelope is quite thin and is so formed (Fig. 4) as to lap on itself as at 20. Cement, at the lap, may be used to effect a seal. Said envelope can be made with extensions 21 that can be worked around the nipples 11 to insure that none of the metal of said nipples or the set screws 18 is exposed.

The plastic contemplated may or may not be transparent but has the property of passing a material portion of the heat generated by ribbons 14. In practice, the ribbons may be provided with their insulating envelopes at the time of their manufacture or the same may be applied at the time of installation.

While each ribbon 14 is shown as separate from the others and separately encased in the envelope 19, it will be evident that two or more ribbons may be encased in a common envelope, providing said ribbons are physically spaced.

The fiat ribbon heater element, when covered by a rug, carpet or other floor covering, has no apparent thickness that could be discerned through such floor covering. This is so regardless whether the heater is installed directly on the floor surface or in the two other ways above indicated.

The outlet box 8 also represents a variable temperature control thermostat. This unit may be of conventional form.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what is now contemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention, the construction is, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is, therefore, not desired to restrict the invention to the particular form of construction illustrated and described, but to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. An electric space heater comprising two currentfeeding wires of cross-sectional size to effect cool conduction of electric current, the Wires being adapted to be connected to opposite sides of a current source and formed to reside against and follow the bases of the walls of a room, a multiplicity of flexible heating elements of high electrical resistance connecting said current-feeding wires and adapted to span across the floor of said room, each said heating element being provided with end terminals and comprising, between said terminals, a ribbon-like part having the ends thereof formed to comprise transition portions connecting the ribbon part and the end terminals, and a plurality of socket members aflixed to and in electrical connection with said feeding wires, said socket members removably receiving said heater element terminals.

2. An electric space heater comprising two currentfeeding wires of cross-sectional size to effect cool conduction of electric current, the wires being adapted to be connected to opposite sides of a current source and formed to reside against and follow the bases of the Walls of a room, a multiplicity of flexible heating elements of high electrical resistance connecting said current-feeding Wires and adapted to span across the floor of said room, each said heating element being provided with end terminals and comprising, between said terminals, a ribbon-like part having the ends thereof formed to comprise transition portions connecting the ribbon part and the end terminals, a plurality of socket members affixed to and in electrical connection with said feeding wires, said socket members removably receiving said heater element terminals, and an insulating envelope around each heater element and the portions of the socket members adjacent thereto.

3. An electric space heater comprising a pair of low resistance current-feeding wires, said wires being adapted to be connected to a source of current, a plurality of sockets affixed to said Wires, the sockets of one wire extending toward the sockets of the second wire, a plurality of fiat high resistance Wires interconnecting said pair of feeding wires, and flat wires having end terminals adapted to engage said sockets, the ends of said flat Wires being formed to comprise transition portions connecting the wires and the end terminals, and means to secure said terminals within said sockets.

4. An electric floor heater comprising a pair of spaced, flexible, current-feeding wires that are of low resistance relative to wires hereinafter named, the first-mentioned wires being adapted to be connected to a source of current, a plurality of flexible, flat, ribbon-like wires electrically connected in parallel to the first-mentioned feed wires and disposed substantially in parallel arrangement with each other, the Hat, ribbon-like wires being of a resistance that is high relative to the first-mentioned feed wires, the heater assembly being flexible to roll the feed wires, together with the connected ribbon-like wires, into a bundle for transportation, and the flat, ribbon-like wires being enclosed in flat, flexible electric-insulating, heatresistant envelopes.

5. An electric floor heater according to claim 4, in which the envelopes are thinner at the side of the flat wires than in the vertical plane of said wires.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,170,739 De Khotinsky Feb. 8, 1916 1,758,704 Johnson May 13, 1930 2,012,598 Clemens Aug. 27, 1935 2,502,147 Grothouse Mar. 28, 1950 2,523,405 Whited Sept. 26, 1950 2,608,634 Abbott Aug. 26, 1952 2,613,309 Frere Oct. 7, 1952 2,712,591 Rogell July 5, 1955 2,718,068 Reed Sept. 20, 1955 

